Revision, Validation, and Evaluation of the Undergraduate Teacher Field Work Experience in Reading at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Ceaser, Lisbeth

Education majors at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo are primarily English speaking only and need guidance in strategies for adapting instruction for a variety of levels of second language acquisition students. This project addressed the problem of a lack of sufficient preparation of undergraduate students to participate in reading field experiences in classrooms with a significant population of limited-English-proficient students. Graduate students (n=14) in a reading specialist course created prototypical bilingual lessons in reading and modeled them for undergraduate teaching candidates (n=30). One implication of the project is that graduate and undergraduate course requirements may be met through collaborative activities that merge educational theory with instructional practice. As the graduate students demonstrated competence to implement research-based reading strategies in bilingual classrooms, the undergraduate students received practical direction for field experience activities. Appendices contain course outlines and evaluation forms. (Contains approximately 75 references.) (JDD)